Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and his World
This book offers the first major reassessment of the life and work of Sir Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, for over a century. Arlington was one of Charles IIs chief ministers and the book charts his early years through to the careers of his descendants, examining his political development as a courtier, diplomat, linguist and politician. Authored by a series of experts in the field, the book not only shines a light on his career, but also on Charles IIs reign as a whole, on the Cavalier court and on Restoration politics. Arlington was a significant player in international politics and this is reflected in the collections treatment of his time abroad in the 1650s, his central role as an advisor and ambassador, and his influence in Ireland.
Robin Eagles is Editor of the House of Lords (16601832) section at the History of Parliament. His previous publications include Francophilia in English Society 17481815 (2000) and an edition of the Diaries of John Wilkes 17701797 (2014).
Coleman A. Dennehy is a former IRC Marie Skodowska-Curie fellow at UCD and UCL. Having formerly taught at Vienna, he is currently at the Humanities Institute (UCD) and has recently published Parliament in Ireland, 161389, Restoration Ireland, Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland, and several articles and chapters.
Politics and Culture in Europe, 16501750
Focusing on the years between the end of the Thirty Years War and the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, this series seeks to broaden scholarly knowledge of this crucial period that witnessed the solidification of Europe into centralized nation states and created a recognizably modern political map. Bridging the gap between the early modern period of the Reformation and the eighteenth century of colonial expansion and industrial revolution, these years provide a fascinating era of study in which nationalism, political dogma, economic advantage, scientific development, cultural and artistic interests and strategic concerns began to compete with religion as the driving force of European relations and national foreign policies.
The period under investigation, the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, corresponds with the decline of Spanish power and the rise of French hegemony that was only to be finally broken following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. This shifting political power base presented opportunities and dangers for many countries, resulting in numerous alliances between formerly hostile nations attempting to consolidate or increase their international influence, or restrain that of a rival. These contests of power were closely bound up with political, cultural and economic issues: particularly the strains of state building, trade competition, religious tension and toleration, accommodating flows of migrants and refugees, the birth pangs of rival absolutist and representative systems of government, radical structures of credit, and new ways in which wider publics interacted with authority.
Despite this being a formative period in the formation of the European landscape, there has been relatively little research on it compared to the earlier Reformation, and the later revolutionary eras. By providing a forum that encourages scholars to engage with the forces that were shaping the continent either in a particular country, or taking a trans-national or comparative approach it is hoped a greater understanding of this pivotal era will be forthcoming.
Series Editors
Tony Claydon, Bangor University, UK
Hugh Dunthorne, Swansea University, UK
Charles-douard Levillain, Universit de Lille 2, France
Esther Mijers, University of Reading, UK
David Onnekink, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Ideologies of Western Naval Power, c. 15001815
Edited by J.D. Davies, Alan James and Gijs Rommelse
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Politics-and-Culture-in-Europe-1650-1750/book-series/PCE
First published 2021
by Routledge
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2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Robin Eagles and Coleman A. Dennehy to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eagles, Robin, 1971- editor. | Dennehy, Coleman A, editor.
Title: Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and His World : Restoration Court, Politics and Diplomacy / edited by Robin Eagles and Coleman A. Dennehy.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. | Series: Politics and culture in Europe, 1650-1750 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020009309 (print) | LCCN 2020009310 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367513108 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003053309 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Arlington, Henry Bennet, Earl of, 1618-1685. | Great Britain--History--Charles II, 1660-1685--Biography. | Statesmen--Great Britain--Biography.
Classification: LCC DA447.A72 H46 2020 (print) | LCC DA447.A72 (ebook) | DDC 941.06/6092 [B]--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009309
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009310
ISBN: 978-0-367-51310-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05330-9 (ebk)
Coleman A. Dennehy is a former IRC Marie Skodowska-Curie fellow at UCD and UCL. Currently at the Humanities Institute (UCD), he was a researcher at Das Max-Planck-Institut fr europische Rechtsgeschichte at Frankfurt, and a visiting professor at the Institut fr Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte at the Faculty of Laws of the University of Vienna. He has recently published Parliament in Ireland, 161389: The Evolution of a Colonial Institution (Manchester, 2019), Restoration Ireland: Always Settling and Never Settled (Aldershot, 2008), Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2020), and several articles and chapters.
Robin Eagles is Editor of the House of Lords (16601832) section of the History of Parliament. He was one of the principal contributors to the History of Parliament: The Lords 16601715, for which he wrote the entry on the earl of Arlington. He has published widely on English society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with previous publications including Francophilia in English Society 17481815 (Basingstoke, 2000) and an edition of the Diaries of John Wilkes 17701797 (Woodbridge, 2014).
Charles Littleton
